Pokemon Sword And Shield Won’t Feature Any HMs
Anyone who’s played a decent amount of Pokemon games is familiar with the concept of TMs and HMs. These two items were the way your party’s Pokemon learned new specific moves. TMs (Technical Machines) held moves that players could use only in Battle, but HMs (Hidden Machines) featured moves that could also help the player traverse the overworld out of battle. Despite their notable usefulness, it sounds like we won’t be seeing the return of these abilities in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
In this month’s Game Informer, it was revealed that there will not be any HMs in either Pokemon Sword or Pokemon Shield. In an interview with game director Kazumasa Iwao, it was revealed why these particular items didn’t fit the new game. “I think they played a role in the series traditionally to be like the relationship between a door and a key; the HM will unlock something and you’re able to progress and feel the ability to go to a new place,” Iwao said.
We didn’t have them in Sun and Moon, and this time around, we didn’t feel it really matched the concept, especially with the Wild Area and wanting to have this higher degree of freedom. The player can kind of choose how they want to engage with the gameplay. Having the more HM-based elements, we didn’t feel it really matched the game, so this time around they’re not in it.”
As Iwao says in his answer, HMs haven’t been a big part of the past two Pokemon games. Pokemon Sun and Moon replaced the need for HMs by providing the player with summonable “Ride Pokemon” that would perform specific tasks, while Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee had the player’s companion learn these moves specifically so they could be used out of battle. This will also render “HM slaves” – Pokemon the player keeps in their party just to learn HM moves – obsolete which is a universally good change for all players. We’ll see what other great changes await when Pokemon Sword and Shield release on November 15th for Nintendo Switch.
Are you going to play Pokemon Sword or Shield? What else are you hoping to see changes to for this new generation of Pokemon games? Let us know in the comments below! Be sure to also follow us on Twitter, Like us on Facebook, and check out all the latest news from Don’t Feed The Gamers:
Colin Regan239 Posts
Colin is a freelance writer for DFTG with previous bylines at other media outlets such as Twinfinite.
